We talk about monument law every now and thenhereat propertyprof. And, believe me, there's a lot left to be said on the law of Civil War monuments. Sunday's New York Times brings this article on the debate over what to do with monuments in Iraq. Here's an excerpt:

There may be no starker reminder of Saddam Hussein’s
tyrannical rule than the potent symbols he left behind: scores of
hubristic statues, murals, frescoes and other monuments he built all
over Iraq to commemorate himself. While many were destroyed in the cathartic
celebration and mob violence that followed the invasion, many others
still remain, serving as a constant echo of Mr. Hussein’s all-consuming
authority and setting off the same range of emotions, from swollen
Baath pride to desperate fear, that he inspired while he was alive.

Now
the nation is trying to figure out whether to save these objects as
memorials to history or wipe them out. The debate goes to the core of a
wounded nation’s effort to redefine itself and reconcile with its
painful past. In recent weeks, the matter has crystallized around
Iraq’s most famous landmark, the Victory Arch, two sets of gargantuan
crossed swords held by giant fists modeled after Mr. Hussein’s. The
government had begun to tear it down, but an influential lobby,
including the American Embassy, has blocked the dismantling for the
time being. . . .

The monuments committee wants to save one of the Victory Arch’s four
swords and melt the other three for new monuments, according to Mr.
Tamimi, who envisions a Baghdad full of sculptures honoring dancers,
poets, artists, the “kings of ancient civilization” and even the first
American soldier killed in the Iraq War. . . .

“The removal process of this committee,” Mr. Tamimi said, “is itself a form of rebuilding.”

As I said last summer in the context of discussion of a discussion of whether to rename Penny Lane, moves to rename (or remove monuments) face a host of issues, including whether by removing names, we forget the lessons of the past. The decision whether to keep monuments to the past in Iraq is a tough one, for sure. As I've commented in another context, the same monument may mean very different things to different people.

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